Happy Birthday Fabrice Muamba!

Bolton midfielder Fabrice Muamba is continuing to make “strong and steady improvements” in his recovery from a cardiac arrest as he celebrates his 24th birthday.

Muamba collapsed on the pitch in the first half of Wanderers’ FA Cup quarter-final at Tottenham on March 17, with the game subsequently being abandoned.

The former England Under-21 international received treatment on the field before being carried off on a stretcher and rushed to the London Chest Hospital.

It has emerged that it took 78 minutes for his heart to start working on its own again, but Muamba has made incredible progress since then and a week ago a picture of him sitting up in his hospital bed and smiling was posted on Twitter.

Bolton boss Owen Coyle said the player had been walking around in the corridors of the intensive care unit he has been staying in and now – on the day Muamba turns 24 – a joint statement from the club, Barts and the NHS Trust says: “Fabrice Muamba continues to make strong and steady improvements and remains in the intensive care unit of the London Chest Hospital.”

Coyle’s update on Muamba came on Thursday morning in his press conference to preview Bolton’s Barclays Premier League home match against Fulham this weekend.

He said: “He has done some short periods of walking down the corridor he is in as part of the unit, staying in intensive care.

“He is taking steps, talking and has that big smile which we love to see, so he is certainly progressing the right way.”

Coyle added: “My chairman Phil Gartside was there with our club doctor Jonathan Tobin (on Wednesday), and our club chaplain Phil Mason will be there (on Thursday) to continue the support from the football club.

“A couple of players have been sending him messages and we are keeping in touch. It has been great to see that smile and he continues to get better. We have to stress that he still has a long way to go, but the improvement has been remarkable and long may that continue.”